Advancements in reproductive medicine are helping more and more difficult cases start their parenthood journey

By ; Shaima Hassan

The not-so-talked-about secondary infertility is defined as a situation where couples who have previously experienced pregnancies but are now struggling to conceive naturally again. Both male and female factors play a role and this condition may arise due to various causes. One of these causes, according to IVI Middle East Fertility Clinic, is genetic problems.

This was the case for two married women, both in their 30s, who sought the intervention of IVI Middle East to have healthy babies. One was 35 years old and the other was 31 years old.

IVI Middle East, who runs state-of-the-art clinics in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in UAE and Muscat in Oman, shared the patient’s case history stating that the 35-year-old patient, who is married to her second-degree cousin with first-degree female parental consanguinity, had gotten pregnant three times in the past. Two of those - the first and third pregnancies were born with intellectual disability. The second baby was prematurely delivered with intrauterine fetal death, a clinical term for stillbirth. The couple had undergone multiple failed In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) treatments.

On the other hand, the 31-year-old patient, who is married to her second-degree cousin with first-degree bilateral parental consanguinity, had a miscarriage and an ectopic pregnancy. They had failed to conceive since the last pregnancy despite undergoing IVF at another clinic.  

“The patient came to our Abu Dhabi clinic wishing to conceive again. For the first patient, based on extensive genetic analysis on the children, we recommended her to undergo an IVF treatment with Pre-implantation Genetic Testing (PGT-A) for aneuploidy and PGT-M for monogenic disorder for gene mutations,” Dr Laura Melado, IVF Specialist, IVI Middle East, Abu Dhabi said.

“For the second patient, we conducted a compatibility genetic testing due to consanguinity. The combined results came out positive for glycine encephalopathy (GLDC gene), which means both the husband and the wife are carriers of this genetic mutation. Therefore, we recommended an IVF treatment with PGT-A for aneuploidy and PGT-M for monogenic disorder for the GLDC gene,” Dr. Laura added. 

PGT is designed to detect and prevent the transmission of serious diseases to the offspring caused by genetic and chromosomal alterations in embryos, before their implantation and ensure that children are born free of hereditary diseases.

A frozen embryo transfer on the 35-year-old mom took place at the IVI Middle East clinic in October 2018 after undergoing an IVF/ICSI treatment with Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) for genetic disorders. She delivered a healthy son in June 2019.

The 31-year-old patient, on the other hand, had undergone two cycles of IVF treatments with PGT-A and PGT-M in April 2016 and June 2018. She gave birth to a healthy daughter in 2016 and a healthy son in 2019.

“We are proud of these two success stories. Their cases show that hope is not lost for couples who are suffering from difficult infertility conditions, whether primary or secondary. Their dream of having a healthy child is still within reach. Given the advancements in reproductive medicine, we are helping more and more couples to start their parenthood journey and this is what IVI Middle East is all about. AS one of the leading reproductive medicine clinics in the region, we are fully committed to delivering positive results with patient well-being at its core,” Dr. Laura said.